“I don’t really like the look in your eyes right now,” he said softly, his thumbs tracing smooth lines over her cheekbones. “For a second or two, you looked excited at the idea, then all of a sudden the light in your eyes went out.”
She dredged up a smile, hoped it was plenty bright and forced lightness into her tone. She wouldn’t give him a reason to regret their time together. She wouldn’t give him the opening to allow pity in his eyes because she’d tumbled into love where she shouldn’t have.
“I’m fine, Jackson,” she said, shaking her head at him.
“And though I really hate to admit this to you because you’re already pretty insufferable about being right all the time…”
“Yeah? Well, it’s good to be right.” That smile again. The one that sent shivers down her spine.
She blew out a breath. Really, how could she have helped falling in love with him? “You really are impossible, you know?”
“So they tell me.”
Casey sighed and for her own sanity, stepped out of his touch and held out her hand formally.
“What’s this?”
“A business deal,” she said, smiling at his confusion.
“You offered me a job, right?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Well then, I accept. I’ll work for King Jets and for King Vineyards, and King Gypsies if Travis and Gina are interested—”
“They will be,” Jackson promised as he took her hand in his and folded his long, warm fingers around hers. Then slowly, inexorably, he pulled her toward him. “But as far as sealing the deal goes,” he murmured as he lowered his head to hers, “I prefer the termsealed with a kiss. ”
“Dani, when he kissed me, I swear my hair curled and you know it’s too short to curl.”
“Tell me,” her friend demanded, her voice husky over the phone.
“We were standing there in the parking lot and he was all furious about that client making a move on me—”
“Sleaze bucket,” Dani put in.
“Absolutely,” Casey agreed. “Anyway, he—Jackson he, not the sleazeball he—grabbed me, pulled me up against him and kissed me so hard and so long and so deep, I’m pretty sure I felt his tongue on my tonsils.”
“Wow, did it just get hot in here?”
“It’s pretty damn hot here,” Casey told her.
“Did he hold on really tight and just mush you in really close?” Dani asked on a sigh.
“Oh yeah.”
“God, I love when Mike does that to me, but usually I have to get him really mad for that to happen.”
“Jackson was mad all right.”
“Worth it though, wasn’t it?”
“Big time,” Casey said and folded her legs up under her on the cushioned window seat in her bedroom. “But right about then is when I realized I’m in serious trouble.”
“You did it, didn’t you?” Dani sighed again. “You went and fell in love with him.”
Casey turned her head to stare out at the spring storm. Lightning flashed behind black clouds and rain slashed at the window glass. The world outside was a blurred confusion of color that suited Casey’s mood right down to the ground. And with Mia down for a nap and Jackson off at some meeting, she could indulge in the swamping emotions churning through her.
“Yeah,” she said, grateful she had someone she could admit it to. “I so did. I love him.”
“Oh, God.” Dani’s voice dropped in sympathy and Casey was reminded again of just how good it was to have a friend who understoodeverything. “Did you tell him?”
“What am I, crazy?”
A choked-off laugh shot from Dani’s throat. “How does he feel?”
“I don’t know.” Casey sighed, watching the rain run in tiny rivers down the glass until it looked like the house was crying. “And I can’t exactly ask, you know?”
“Absolutely not,” Dani agreed, then half covered the receiver with her hand and ordered, “Mikey, I said we’d give the dog a bath later. Please stop squirting him with dishwashing soap.”
Casey chuckled and it felt good. She’d needed this talk with Dani. In the time she’d been at Jackson’s house, she’d been so caught up in him and Mia and finding time for her own work, that she hadn’t called her friend as she should have. Dani might have kept her sane. Dani might have given her enough good advice to keep Casey from falling in love with the completely wrong man.
But even as she thought that, she knew that nothing could have changed the current situation. It was what it was. What had Jackson said when he first took her to bed?From that first night, we were destined for this? Well, maybe Casey had been destined to love him, too. That’s how it felt. As if she’d finally found what she’d been searching for all her life.
For all the good it did her.
“What’re you going to do?”
“What can I do?” she countered, smoothing one finger down the windowpane, following the trail of a single raindrop. “I agreed to six months. If I tried to leave early, he’d try to take Mia.”
Shock colored Dani’s voice. “You think he’d still do that?”
Probably not, she mused. But how could she be sure? “I guess I’m not really sure about it, but can I afford to risk it?”
“So what’s the plan then?”
“Good question. And there only seems to be one answer that I can come up with.”
“Which is?”
“Enjoy what I have while I have it,” she said firmly. “I may not have him forever, but I can relish this feeling, this time with him as long as I can, right?”
“Absolutely,” Dani said, earning the title of Best Friend one more time. “So. Do I get any sordid details?”
Casey laughed and felt a little of the ache in her heart lift. “Sure, how many do you want?”
“How many do you have?”
“Hundreds,” Casey admitted, her skin heating up, just remembering all the times she and Jackson had come together.
“Oh, honey.Spill. ”
“You have awhat? ”
“A daughter,” Jackson said, watching Marian’s brown eyes narrow. He’d known this wasn’t going to be easy, but he’d had Anna set up this meeting with Marian because it had to be done. He’d already put off facing her with the truth for too long. “I have adaughter. ”